Forum Discussion

jls's avatar
jls
Explorer
Nov 15, 2021

spring snow free

I am planning a trip for spring from Syracuse NY to Utah national parks.(Interstate 80) When can I feel safe from having
snow in the rockies?

Thanks in advance
John
  • No month, we've been snowed on twice in Yellowstone in different Julys. I80 has been closed by snow every month except one. When you get up in the mountains the weather is unpredictable. There was 8 inches of snow on the ground and more come down fast in Yellowstone when we left at the beginning of this October. And we got snowed on in Bryce several times this last late May

    That being said, mid to late June is -usually- snow free in southern Utah. All of this varies from year to year, some are heavy snow years others are not. The higher you get and the further north the more the weather gets unpredictable.
  • Hope you realize Bryce is at 8,000 ft and will get snow in April, May and sometimes even in July.

    If you want to avoid snow, you will need to go south to I40 and even that could be iffy in March.

    Wouldn't worry too much about I70 though as they are use to handling snow and will have the road open soon after any late snow storms.
  • I would rather face snow than hordes of people. FYI Moab, Utah gets active w #vanlife probably in early April. And if it's too cold head south to the Grand Canyon and AZ desert, for example Organ Pipe National Monument.
  • jls wrote:
    I am planning a trip for spring from Syracuse NY to Utah national parks.(Interstate 80) When can I feel safe from having
    snow in the rockies?
    By mid April you can usually feel comfortable in not having prolonged snow events. in other words, plan an extra day or so for your travels across Wyoming in case you need to hunker down somewhere and wait a storm out. Sometimes it can happen that there's a big storm on I-80 but nothing on I-70 or vice versa, so keeping your options open can help. Also by mid April, the sun is up long enough and high enough in the sky to melt roads off pretty quickly (most of the time). I mean some years we can get a doozy of a storm in early to mid May, but most years not. I remember skiing 29" of new snow May 4th (or so) at Loveland Basin by the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70.

    As far as the Utah parks, Bryce (8000') and Cedar Breaks (10,500') are the only ones high enough to have snow concerns in April and May. We've hit 100+ temps in Moab on Memorial Day weekend. Zion is further south so warmer yet.